A couple of weeks ago Brad and I took a short trip to Oklahoma to see family. He had some days off of school and I found us a cheap flight. We left during a winter storm in Buffalo, and after we arrived a big winter storm popped up for most of the US. As the week went on all of the news coverage was about how terrible it was going to be, so I knew our trip home would be a bit delayed!
We enjoyed lots of visits with my dad, my mom and stepdad, and my brothers. My dad got to show us his "trails" he's been working at his house, and wet got to meet his new dog Bingo.
My mom we recently diagnosed with Alzheimer's so this visit was important for us to see her and spend time with her. She didn't remember us but I did get to spend an afternoon with her and even got her to play a bit of piano! She's an excellent pianist and although I'm sure it has been a long time since she last played, she took right to it and was able to play a couple of pages in each book.
Brad and his grandpa Gary went out for the afternoon for some fun while I stayed at the house with my mom. I did some light cleaning while she napped then visited with her after I got her up.
We even got a brief visit with my sister in-law Sarah and our niece Zoe. She's just a few months older than Bradley but he is now taller than everyone!
A couple of days before the winter storm hit, our flight home got cancelled so I had to bump it to the next day and extended our hotel one more night. I turned our rental car in a bit early as well so my family wouldn't have to get out into the snow and ice to pick me up. We pretty much just stayed in our hotel room all of Saturday watching the snow outside and eating my rations of snacks and hamburgers I stashed in our mini fridge.
The new flight was supposed to be Sunday afternoon, but in true Oklahoma fashion that flight was also cancelled and I had no choice but to extend it yet another day to Monday morning. As fun as the hotel room was, my brother Eric offered to let us crash on his couch Sunday night so we happily took him up on that. He braved the few inches of untouched snow on the roads Sunday afternoon to pick us up and we hung out at his house the rest of that day.
We got up at o' dark thirty Monday morning and thank you sweet baby Jesus the airport was cleared and beginning to function after the apocalyptic 6" snow fall. We made it to our connection in Chicago but of course now the snow storm had moved east to Buffalo so our flight home was delayed a couple of hours. I soothed myself with an airport hotdog.
Thankfully Buffalo is much better at handling actual snow so we landed safely Monday evening and greeted Nick and Jacob with joy to bring us back home. School had been cancelled that day so Brad didn't have to worry about missing the first day of his new semester, and my coworker switched my shift with me so I could miss that night of work.
As much as I would have rather been stranded on a beach vs Oklahoma, it was nice to see the family and catch up!
